For this week’s cover story on the local Tea Party movement, SFR interviewed former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who seems to be running for President, although he says it’s “not part of my horizon.”
Read the full interview after the jump.
(And in case you missed them, check out related interviews with New Mexico Militia leader Bob Wright and Congressional candidate Adam Kokesh.)
Just before the 2010 legislative session began, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson was standing on the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Paseo de Peralta in the snow, wearing a parka that looked thick enough for Everest. (Oh, wait…)
Johnson and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Doug Turner were there to protest new taxes when SFR (clad in no such parka) caught up with them.
Today, former Republican New Mexico Guv Gary Johnson launched a “special advocacy committee” called the OUR America Initiative. According to the inaugural post on the website’s blog, the goal of the Initiative is “to broaden the parameters of the public policy debate of current topics in the national arena.” That’s politico-speak if I’ve ever heard it. Continue reading »
On my journey to work this morning, the dreamy, familiar voice of Steve Inskeep was replaced by another, almost-as-familiar one: that of former New Mexico Gov Gary Johnson. He was talking to KUNM’s Arcie Chapa about legalizing marijuana, among other things. A couple of pithy quotes from Johnson:
“Ninety percent of the drug problem is prohibition-related, not use-related.”
“All of the thousands, if not millions of entrepreneurs, business people, doctors, lawyers and scientists who would move to New Mexico [if] marijuana was legal…maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing!”
And no, I was not reporting while driving. You can access the KUNM archive here; set your times for 8am – 9am today to hear Johnson. Oh, and…don’t forget: If you’re bored with Obama-ism, you could join the 1,848 Facebookers who plan to elect this guy for president.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia.
When the New Mexico Legislature passed the Lynn & Erin Compassionate Use Act two years ago, laying the foundation for a state-administrated medical cannabis program, epidemiologist and pot grower Bernie Ellis was ecstatic because it mirrored suggestions (.doc) he’d made to Gov. Gary Johnson several years earlier.
Now, however, Ellis has concluded (.doc) that the policy makers in the Department of Health are either uninformed or in passive opposition to the program.
Ellis has been growing medical cannabis for more than 20 years, even while serving as a health official with several government entities, including managing a substance abuse research program for the state of New Mexico.
“My personal history seems to be a contradiction in terms,”Ellis tells SFR in a phone interview from his farm in Tennessee. “On the one hand as a public health professional I am well aware that our country is awash in serious substance abuse. On the other hand, as a lifelong cannabis user and provider, I am aware for the most part cannabis provides many more benefits than it has detrimental effects, particularly in the health care arena.”
In 2002, federal law enforcement raided Ellis’ farm in Tennessee. He was sentenced to probation rather than prison time following a large outpouring of public support, Ellis says. The medical marijuana martyr contacted SFR to share his thoughts on New Mexico’s system.
The Santa Fe Reporter
Loading ...
